Kingdom Hearts: Tabula Rasa
by Deadbeatloser22
Summary: There is a consequence to every action. Something is stirring in Kazé, and no-one knows what might happen next. Sequel-fic to Blank Slate. Contains SI.
1. Chapter 1: Discovery

All right, let's get this started then.

First up, the legal stuff. It's pointless and has no real weight, but it's here anyway.

All characters and locations are the properties of their respective copyright holders, be it Square, Disney or whoever else. Whilst no-one reads my stuff, it's unlikely that I'm gonna get sued over it, and I'd be flattered either way, but please don't.

Second, content warning. This fic contains definite Self-Insertion/Sue and probable Canon Defilement, along with the occasional minor sporking from continuities outside KH canon. If any of this offends you, stop reading **NOW**. Although why are you reading fan-fiction if you get offended by Canon Defilement?

Third, this is a sequel to my earlier KH Fic, Blank Slate. Read that first, if you haven't already, so you actually know what's going on.

Anyway…

Kingdom Hearts – Tabula Rasa.

Chapter One – Discovery

World – Destiny Islands

Kazé was sat on the beach again. For the last few days there had been a voice echoing around in his head. A voice he didn't recognise. It was a lot like the voice he'd heard in his dreams before being released from the virtual world, but still different.

And then there was the pain.

It had started a few days ago, after he lost control and shouted in anger. It sent a wave of searing pain up his arm from the wound he'd received in the coliseum. A wound that had re-appeared as a thin ink-blue line on his fore-arm. Now, it was starting to grow, with the dark blue expanding outward like veins, making a bizarre pattern on his skin.

A couple of Shadows popped up out of the sand. It was now so common that he was almost getting used to it. But for whatever reason they were ignoring him._  
Strange..._  
Whatever the reason was, he wasn't going to keep them around long enough to find out. He levered himself into a standing position, and slid out the Raven's Wing. Doing so caused some discomfort in his left arm, as if the corruption was reacting to it. Either way, it wasn't important right now.

Given how weak the Shadows were in comparison with the other types of Heartless he'd faced on his journey before, it was no surprise that he made relatively short work of them. His skill had definitely increased as well. Suddenly, something in his head started burning_**  
Impressive.**_  
It was the voice again._  
What?**  
You have grown in strength. Maybe it's almost time.**__  
What are you?**  
All will become clear in time.**_  
Kazé was vaguely aware of his left hand twitching slightly on its own, before everything went black.

He woke up to find himself laying on his bed._  
Huh. Maybe it was all just a dream..._  
Except it wasn't, a point demonstrated when he lifted his arm to see that the corruption had spread even more.  
"Oh good. You're awake." His father was sat a few feet away.  
"What happened?"  
"Sora found you collapsed on the beach. I don't suppose you're going to tell me why."  
Kazé lifted his arm.  
"I don't know for sure, but I think this may have something to do with it."  
"What is it?"  
"I don't know. But I've been hearing voices since it appeared. I think it might be trying to take control."  
His father's expression changed. He knew what was coming next.  
"So you're leaving then."  
"I have to. It's too dangerous for everyone else if I stay." Kazé slid open a drawer. Inside was the black robe he'd taken from his replica. "Maybe I'll find a cure, maybe I won't. Until then, I won't risk everyone by staying here. I'm sorry to have to do this to you again." He slid on the robe, altering the rest of his clothing.  
"All right. But there is something I want to show you; something that might be of some use to you."

The pair were stood out on the beach. Kazé's father snapped his fingers once, spawning a portal than resembled a shimmering pool of water.  
"Amazing. I guess this is a portal of light or something?"  
"Correct. The Paths of Light are one of the many ways of travelling the universe. Just concentrate on where you want to go, and it will take you there. Try it for yourself." He snapped his fingers again, closing the Path with a high-pitched whine. Kazé focused on a world he'd been to before, and snapped his fingers, the sound muted slightly by his glove. At once, another portal opened with a sound like a geyser erupting. Kazé raised his hood.  
"_Well, I guess this is it then. For now."_  
"For now. But what do you want me to tell everyone?"_  
"The truth, I guess."_  
"So where are you going first?"_  
"To find someone I think might be able to help."_  
Then he stepped into the portal, which absorbed him with a brief sucking sound. And then it closed, leaving his father alone on the beach again.

World: Radiant Garden

Kazé stepped out of the portal, which closed behind him. Behind him, the castle towered up above, and the town was sprawled out in front of him. Thankfully, the defence system didn't react to his arrival._  
Guess my signature's still in the system._  
However, almost immediately he was surrounded by Shadows, which did set off the system. Ignoring the building discomfort in his arm, he slid out the Raven's wing and charged at the closest one, even though it seemed to be ignoring him. However, destroying this one got the others' attention. The first lunged at him and missed, the second tried to take out his legs and a third leapt straight for his throat. Kazé swatted the jumping Heartless away, and half spun, half ducked to take out the one trying to hamstring him. Just as he smashed the last one into the ground, something in his left arm began to tingle again, and suddenly he blacked out.

He woke to find himself stood on a stained glass platform._  
Not this again..._  
This one was different to the ones he'd been on before. It was green, and rather than the three symbols there was an image of himself, asleep. Above it was a group of four circles, each carrying a picture. Sora, Riku, Kairi and his father. Around the edge was the same style of dragon that was on his pendant._  
So where am I?_  
"_**Inside your mind. Where else?"**_  
It was the voice again._  
Who are you?_  
"_**Who I am isn't important right now. However, you are in more danger than you realise."**  
How?_  
The voice laughed. It was an incredibly high pitched, cutting laugh, of the sort usually reserved for a villain too far on the wrong side of sanity, but even creepier.  
"_**You'll see soon enough."**_  
Then a white light engulfed the platform.

He came round slower this time, and was vaguely aware of what people were saying._  
How did he get there?  
I don't know.  
Does Sora know?  
__I think so. He knew he'd left, and guessed he'd ended up here. He came to find someone who might be able to help him.  
But what's the story behind that?_  
He opened his eyes. From the looks of things, he was in Merlin's house again. Someone had pulled back his hood, and he was propped up on a chair. His left sleeve had been pulled up, and he could see that the corruption in his arm had spread again, where it was starting to permeate the flesh between the veins it had already formed.  
"I can't really say. It looks Heartless, but I've never seen anything like it before." Merlin was musing on the nature of the corruption in Kazé's arm.  
"Wait, seriously?" That little revelation piqued Kazé's curiosity.  
"Ah. You're awake. Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing, but it seems like the best conclusion. But that's not the only thing about it."  
"It's spreading. It grew from one line..." Kazé traced the original wound with his right thumb "... out to all this. Which means..."  
"...Eventually it'll reach your heart, and that'll be it." Leon was leaning against the wall behind Kazé. The teen was genuinely shocked at this conclusion.  
"I guess that all makes sense, given how I think it may have happened. So what happened out there?"  
"We found you unconscious on the floor by the castle after responding to the alert. Although we didn't know who it was at the time; you were hooded, after all. But you said you knew how this happened?"  
"I think it may have happened after I was slashed in the arm by an Air Soldier. That's how my Replica ended up being created from tainted blood, after all."  
"I see. Well, I think I was able slow the corruption, but I have no clue how to eliminate it entirely. For now, I guess you'll just have to cope with it."  
Kazé stood up and went to leave.  
"I think you can see why I chose to leave. I'm going to keep searching until I find a cure, however long it takes." He opened the door, reaching to pull up his hood with the other hand. _"For now though..."_  
"Good luck."  
The sound of a geyser echoed in the street outside, followed by a sucking noise and a high pitched whine.


	2. Chapter 2: Denial

All right, let's get this started then.

Here's the legal stuff. It's pointless and has no real weight, but it's here anyway.

All characters and locations are the properties of their respective copyright holders, be it Square, Disney or whoever else. Since no-one reads my stuff, it's unlikely that I'm gonna get sued over it, and I'd be flattered either way, but please don't.

Anyway…

Kingdom Hearts – Tabula Rasa.

Chapter Two – Denial

World – Kingdom of the Mice

The fog hung thick over the streets. Thick enough that no-one noticed as a bat broke into a small shop on a street corner and absconded with something in a sack.

Kazé stepped from the pathway, and immediately noticed two things. One, that he had apparently turned into a mouse, no doubt a result of the laws of this world, and two, that it was starting to rain. Thankful for the hood on his cloak, he nevertheless immediately darted for shelter, both from the rain, and from the possibility he'd been seen. A bit further down an alley he could see a boot laying on it's side. A rather portly looking mouse walked into it, and he could hear the sound of a child crying softly, the sound carrying over the noise of the rain thudding onto the cobbled street. Eventually, he stepped out again, followed by a young child. For lack of any better ideas, Kazé opted to follow, but as soon as he stepped out, he was surrounded by Heartless. They seemed to be confused, in so much as a Shadow could appear to be. They had been drawn to this spot by the call of his Keyblade, and yet made no attempt to fight him._**  
This shouldn't be a problem for you; They're only Shadows after all.**_  
It was the voice again._  
What makes you so sure?**  
You've fought hundreds of the things. Six more isn't really a challenge, is it?**_  
Kazé sighed and summoned his Keyblade, the action being met with that same twinge in his arm. He guessed it was the Heartless matter reacting to it slightly. At once, the number of Shadows swelled from six to twenty, and they charged at him. He ducked under the first swipe, driving his blade into the Shadow's chest. He then spun to take out one behind him, the jerking movement causing his hood to fall. The heavy rain soaked through his fur where his hair would normally have been; like in the Outlaw's Forest it had retained the same shape even in a new form. The rain left it hanging down rather than begin spiked up like it was before. He struck another Shadow across the back, catapulting it into the last of them, and making them all dissipate. He then looked around for the pair he was tracking, threw up his hood again, and set off.

He tracked the pair to a small dwelling hidden beneath a much larger terrace of houses. Looking up, he could see the silhouette of a man playing a violin through one of the upper floor windows. When he actually reached it, he heard a loud bang; a sound he only recognised as a gunshot because of the time he'd spent in Port Royal; an adventure that seemed like an age ago. Keeping low, he moved to the window, and saw a large quantity of feathers flying around, before another mouse retrieved something and placed it under a microscope. Kazé watched him study whatever it was for a few seconds before crying out in despair and settling into a chair with a violin. Someone then said something which clearly touched a nerve, as the stranger then proceeded to rattle off a large quantity of exposition, none of which Kazé could actually hear. Thunder cracked overhead, and in the lightning flash Kazé could see a bat hanging above the window. He crouched down as he heard someone approach the window, and then heard the child scream. He flattened himself against the wall in the shadows as the front door opened; he was in no mood to be seen just yet. Eventually, they retreated inside, and then left again on the back of a large dog. Kazé decided to follow again.

The trail led to a human toy store. Kazé did his best to pass the dog without being noticed, and climbed up to the window he'd seen the trio enter through. It was obvious how to get in – one of the circular panes of glass was, bizarrely, a different colour to the others, and had a barely noticeable hole in the centre. He put his finger through it, and pulled the circle open, before climbing through and pulling it shut behind him. No sooner had he done this, all hell broke loose, culminating in a large stack of blocks and other items being sent crashing down. He picked his way around the wreckage, and could hear something setting off one of the toys. Eventually, he saw two of the mice he'd followed, one of whom was caught up in a string attached to the toy in question, and was shouting at the other. He was trying to free himself, and not doing too well at it.  
"_Need help?"_ Kazé jumped out from the shadows, grabbed hold of the string, and slashed through it with his Keyblade just above where it was tangled round the stranger's foot. The stranger hit the floor with a definite thump, and Kazé swung off, dropping lightly onto his feet a few relative yards away, his back to the pair. The stranger finished untangling his feet, stood up and dusted himself down.  
"Thank you. And you are?"  
Kazé dropped his hood and turned round.  
"Name's Kazé."  
The stranger pondered something briefly.  
"Now that is an interesting contradiction. You have a Japanese name, and yet you have a distinctly Western appearance and speak English with an accent that is anything but. This, combined with the way you're dressed and the item you're carrying..." The stranger indicated Kazé's Keyblade "... raises more questions than it answers, although if I had to make a guess, I'd say you came from another world entirely." He then looked over Kazé's shoulder, and noticed that the other mouse was looking dejected. "Dawson? I say, Dawson old chap?"  
It was obvious the other mouse was holding back the urge to break down.  
"That poor girl... I should have watched her more closely."  
"Don't worry, old fellow. It's not... entirely hopeless... We'll get her back."  
"Do... Do you think there's a chance?"  
"There's always a chance, doctor." The stranger lit his pipe, striking a match on one of the toys. "As long as one can think." He then began to pace around the counter-top, thinking. Dawson pulled a document of some sort from one of his pockets, as Kazé tried to look over his elbow to see what it was.  
"Hmm... _Get the following: Tools, Gears... The girl_(!)"  
At this point the stranger leaned in as well, before snatching the list away.  
"Dawson, you've done it! This list is precisely what we need!"  
"What?"  
"Quickly, back to Baker Street!"

However, as the three tried to leave, they were surrounded.  
"What... What are those things?" Even the stranger, smart as he was, was stumped.  
"Heartless." Kazé drew his Keyblade, wincing slightly as his arm reacted. "Run."  
As the other two fled, he stood between the Shadows and them._  
Here we go again._  
And then the Shadows charged at him.

The pair waited with the dog outside as Kazé dived out the hole in the window, heaving it shut. There was no trace of Heartless behind him.  
"Well, I don't think they'll be following any time soon."

Back at the house, the stranger, whose name Kazé had learned was Basil, examined the list.  
"Hmm... Offhand, I can deduce very little. Only that the words are written with a broad-pointed quill pen, which has spattered. Twice. That the paper is of..." He weighed it in his hand "...native Mongolian manufacture, no watermark, and has..." He tested it in his mouth "... been gummed, if I'm not mistaken, by a bat, who's been drinking Rodent's Delight, a cheap brandy sold only in the seediest pubs."  
"Amazing."  
"Nonsense Doctor, we still don't know where it came from." Basil dug his microscope out from under a heap. "Perhaps a closer inspection will tell us something."  
He examined the paper under the lens briefly.  
"Hmm... Coal dust, clearly of the type used in sewer lamps."  
He then burnt the list, and ground the ash into a powder before emptying it into a beaker of yellow liquid, which turned blue. He then added a drop of a red liquid, which smoked briefly, and set it up under a distillation rig of some sort, turning up the heat at one end. A green liquid surged through the tubes, before a drop of it landed in the beaker with a small explosion.  
"Ha-ha!"  
"But what does that mean?" Kazé was confused.  
"This reaction could only have been triggered by the paper's extreme saturation with distillation of Sodium Chloride."  
"OK..." The science went straight over the boy's head.  
"Salt water?" Even Dawson, a Doctor, was confused by what that meant.  
"It proves, beyond a doubt..." Basil dug a map of the city out of a pot full of various charts "...this list came from the river-front area." He pinned the map to the wall with a pair of darts.  
"Steady on there, Basil."  
"No, no. Elementary, my dear Dawson. We need only look for a seedy pub at the only spot..." He jabbed a third dart into the map "...where the sewer connects to the waterfront."

The trio approached the door with no small amount of hesitation. All three were in disguise, trying to look like they actually belonged. Kazé had removed his robe and jumper, leaving only his T-shirt underneath. The combination of black T-shirt, green-grey trousers, silver trainers and black half-gloves might stick out a bit, but it was better than a black pseudo-leather cloak. The dark marks on his arm from the Heartless matter were obvious against his brown fur. Dawson lagged behind a bit, feeling self-conscious.  
"Come on."  
"But I look utterly ridiculous."  
"Don't be absurd. You look perfect."  
Dawson stepped out from behind a post, trying to pull his shirt down to his waist.  
"Perfect? Perfectly foolish, more like. And I'm still not sure bringing him here is a good idea. He can't be that much older than Olivia, surely?"  
"I'll be fine." Kazé spoke up. "I can fight, after all."  
"That's not what I'm worried about."  
Basil shushed them as he opened the door. Inside, they found the stereotypical dirty bar, with an octopus doing a juggling act on stage set to slightly jaunty piano music.  
"All right. Stay close, and act like you belong here."

The group drew a couple of shifty looks as they moved to a vacant table. There was a definite air of tension in the room as the act on stage drew to a close, and the octopus ran off the stage under a hail of thrown vegetables, knives and darts. Basil tried to get information from the barmaid, effecting a thick accent as he did so. However, the second he mentioned Ratigan's name (Kazé had learned that he was the one they were trying to find), a deathly silence descended over the whole bar. The maid stammered out something about having never heard of him, and beat a hasty retreat.

Whilst the crowd was enamoured with the next act on stage, Basil and Kazé both noticed what was going on at the bar, as the maid whispered something to the landlord, who produced a bottle of pink liquid from his shirt pocket, and poured some into their drinks.  
"Here you are boys, on the house."  
Once the bar-maid left, Basil ran his finger around the rim of the glass, and tasted it briefly.  
"I say. These drinks have been..." He trailed off as he saw Dawson drain his mug. "...drugged."  
This hypothesis was confirmed when Dawson began acting erratically. Then Basil noticed something else.

A peg-legged Bat.

However, before the three of them could follow him, Basil noticed that Dawson had vanished. More specifically, he'd wound up on the stage, still under the influence of whatever his drink had been spiked with. Basil slapped one hand over his eyes, and sighed deeply. Dawson then fell off the stage, and onto the piano. The pianist tried to smash him with a plank, but he passed out before the swing connected, and the strike instead hit the rather burly mouse behind him. The result could only really be described as a bar-brawl. Kazé ducked under one strike, and drove his elbow into his assailant's chest. Basil picked Dawson up off the ground and slapped him several times to bring him back to his senses, just in time to see the Bat drop through a trap-door in the floor behind the bar.

Following him led the three into a sewer pipe. Anyone watching from outside would hear the occasional clink, thud, or exclamation as they made their way through the pipe-work. Eventually, they came out into an open area near a keg on it's side.  
"A ha! We've found it; Ratigan's secret lair. And it's filthier than I imagined."  
Then, they noticed the bottle, laying off to one side.  
"Look there, in the bottle!"  
The trio prepared to move off, but then Kazé stopped.  
"Wait. Something's not right here. I'm gonna go keep watch."  
He then proceeded to disappear into the shadows. As Basil tried to prise the cork out of the neck of the bottle, it turned out his fears were justified.

It was a trap. At once, a banner dropped from the ceiling, and a large crowd revealed themselves. The man himself was stood on the steps leading up into the barrel.  
"Congratulations. Although..." He pulled a fob-watch from his pocket "... frankly I was expecting you fifteen minutes earlier. Trouble with the chemistry set, old boy?" His voice turned patronising on that last remark. Basil was quite clearly smouldering with barely contained rage.  
"Ratigan, no-one can have a higher opinion of you than I have... And _I_ think you're a slimy, contemptible sewer rat!"  
Ratigan snapped his watch shut, as if trying to hide some deep-seated anger at that last insult. He simply laughed.  
"Oh my. By the way, Basil, I just love your disguise." He ripped off the false moustache Basil had been wearing. He then started to laugh a bit more openly, along with everyone else, all the while rattling off slightly patronising remarks.  
"So help me Ratigan, I'll see you behind bars yet!" Basil refused to accept defeat.  
"You fool! Isn't it clear to you; The superior mind has triumphed! I've won!"  
At this point, everyone began to laugh again. Basil merely sighed.

"You don't know what a delightful dilemma it was, trying to decide on the most appropriate method for your demise. I had so many ingenious ideas, I didn't know which to choose. So I decided to use them all."  
Basil and Dawson were tied to a mousetrap beneath a dizzying array of devices, all aimed at them.  
"Marvellous, isn't it?"  
Ratigan then proceeded to rattle off just how it would all work: first, the whole set-up would be triggered by a rope tied to the arm of a gramophone; when it reached the end of the record it would pull out a cork that would release a metal ball-bearing, which would trigger the mousetrap itself, which in turn would trigger a pistol, a crossbow, an axe, a falling anvil and finally a camera. Why a camera?  
"It was my fond hope to stay and witness your final scene. But you were fifteen minutes late, after all, and I do have an important engagement to keep at Buckingham Palace."  
And with that, Ratigan set the record playing, and left.  
"What... What did he mean, an engagement at Buckingham Palace?" Dawson was confused.  
"Haven't you figured it out yet, doctor?" Basil was resigned to fate. "The Queen's in danger, and the Empire's doomed."

The record was approaching the end.  
"Basil? Basil?"  
"Oh... How could I have been so blind?"  
"We... We all make mistakes!"  
"Ratigan's proved he's more clever than I. He would never have walked into such an obvious trap."  
"Oh, pull yourself together!" Behind them, the record got stuck. Basil began to rattle off various statements about his failure. "That's Enough!"  
The shout knocked the record back into playing again.  
"Dash it all, Basil. The Queen's in danger, Olivia's counting on us, and we're about to smashed from here to who knows where, and all you can do is lay there feeling sorry for yourself. You can save us, but if you've given up then why don't we just set it off now and be done with it."  
Behind them, there was a quiet snap. Then Basil had a brainwave.  
"Set it off now..." He then began to rattle off a long string of calculations, trying to work out when to set off the mousetrap.

And then the record reached the end, and nothing happened.  
"What on earth..." Basil was confused.  
There was a pronounced cough as someone in the shadows cleared their throat.  
"Hmm?" Basil craned his neck to see who it was. Kazé stepped from the shadows, holding his Keyblade in one hand, and the rope in the other.  
"You certainly took your time getting here."  
"Maybe. Not everyone cleared out after you got captured. Speaking of which..." He slashed through the ropes with his Keyblade.  
"Thank you." Basil whipped off his disguise, to reveal his regular clothes underneath. Kazé sliced through the neck of the bottle perched off to one side, freeing Olivia, the child that had been kidnapped in the toy-store, and the one Kazé had seen crying back when all this had started.  
"Let's get out of here. There's still work to do."

The four of them climbed out of a storm drain near the waterfront. Basil whistled, and at once, Toby the Basset Hound came charging round the corner.  
"All right Toby, the game's afoot and the Queen's in danger. To Buckingham Palace!"

The bat ran through the halls of the palace, carry the bound-and-gagged body of the Queen. Up ahead, there was a window. He looked back, to check he wasn't being followed, but when he looked forward again, he saw that his path was blocked. Kazé was stood there, spinning his Keyblade by its guard.  
"Going somewhere?"  
The bat turned to run the other way, and initially didn't notice that the Queen had been pulled from his grasp. He looked up, and then back to the window, just before Kazé punched him in the face.

In the Great Hall, Ratigan was in the middle of listing his ever so slightly despotic plans for the Kingdom having used a robotic double of the queen to declare himself her consort; a list that ran the length of the hall and an untold distance beyond. Unseen by the watching masses, a cable ran out through the curtains at the rear of the hall, to where Olivia's father was being made to control the double at gunpoint. However, neither of the guards heard the sound of the two outside the door being clubbed unconscious, and so weren't expecting it when it happened to them as well. Basil then took the controls, driving the double haywire. Kazé stuck his head round one side of the curtain, and saw the professor trying in vain to hide the malfunctions from the audience.  
"Otherwise known as a..." Basil shouted down the cable.  
"DON'T SAY IT!" came the angered response from outside as the double finished disintegrating. Basil leapt from the seat and darted through the curtains.  
"SEWER RAT!" He shouted, and Ratigan cried out in anger. "Arrest that fiend!"  
On cue, Kazé and the others ran out to try to subdue the professor, who started laughing maniacally as a full scale brawl erupted between the audience, and Ratigan's henchmen who were posing as the guards.  
"Except there's one thing you didn't count on, did you? Heartless, Rise!"  
As he shouted this, a group of Soldier Heartless appeared on the floor. Kazé immediately vaulted off the Professor's back, drew his Keyblade and landed right in the middle of them, before going to work. At the same time, the peg-legged bat managed to free himself, grabbed Olivia, and jumped up onto one of the balconies. Ratigan wrestled himself free, jumped across the heads of several people and swung up to join them.  
"Stay where you are! Or the girl dies!" He then made his escape, heading for his dirigible.  
"Quickly, this way!" Basil led the group outside, just in time to see the craft leaving. He then began to climb a flagpole. "Everyone, gather up those balloons!" he instructed, whilst running down the flag at the same time.

Soon enough, their little improvised craft, consisting of a number of balloons held under a flag tied round a matchbox, soared up into the sky and gave chase.  
"Let her go, chaps!" Basil shouted, and the others (Kazé, Dawson and Olivia's father) released the pressure from a balloon they were holding. It made a quite humorously disgusting noise, but it did the job of giving them enough thrust to keep up. The chase ran through Trafalgar Square, and under the Tower Bridge.  
"Steady!" Basil and Kazé jumped across, just before the craft slammed straight into a clock face.

Kazé came to laying on a large iron gear, and just in time to see Ratigan backhand Basil off the edge of the wheel they were stood on. He shifted into a crouch, and jumped across, putting himself between the two.  
"Heh... Brave, but foolish, child."  
However, if Ratigan had looked, he would have noticed something different, Kazé's eyes had changed colour, going from blue-green to golden yellow, and the dark veins on his arm were glowing purple, an effect heightened by the low light within the clock. The light then began to spread up his arm and across his body, something which he would later describe as feeling like fire running up his arm. When it subsided, his fur had gone from brown to the same shade of blue-black as a Shadow, and his hands were wreathed in purple fire.  
"K-Kazé?" Basil heaved himself over the edge of the gear.  
"**No. Not anymore. Taifu."**  
Basil gasped, realising perhaps what this meant. At the same time, what seemed like Latin chanting seemed to drift down from above, and Taifu shifted into a fighting stance, the fire around his fists intensifying. He then launched a purple fireball at Ratigan. He dodged, but in the process he let Olivia go, and Basil darted across to catch her, before unhitching a chain and riding it out of sight. The fireball slammed into one of the gears and exploded, blowing several teeth off it. Ratigan seemed to be giving in to rage as well; his eyes became suddenly bloodshot, and there was a hint of Heartless gold around the edges. However, before he could give chase, Taifu tackled him to the ground, and punched him square in the face, the fireball flaring as it impacted. Ratigan kicked him off with relative ease, the combination of his strength and the boy's low weight almost sending him tumbling into the bowels of the mechanism. He landed on his feet though, and launched a barrage of fireballs, blowing apart more of the mechanism and a fair amount of the glass face. Ratigan took advantage of this reprieve to climb the chain, as Taifu gave chase.

Basil just managed to stop short of falling three-hundred feet down into the streets. However, Ratigan was still pursuing them. At the last moment, the improvised balloon rose up again, and he was able to pass Olivia off to her waiting father before Ratigan tackled him off the roof and down on to one of the hands of the clock. Taifu was still following him, and dived off after them. He slid down the rain soaked hand, where Ratigan was savagely beating Basil to within an inch of his life, and aimed a flying kick at the small of the Professor's back. However, before the blow sent him falling into the night, he grabbed hold of Basil and dragged him off too, sending the pair crashing into the wreckage, which gradually broke apart, and fell towards the city streets, as Taifu collapsed on the hand from exhaustion.

"Look!" Olivia shouted from the balloon, as Basil managed to use the propeller of Ratigan's dirigible to make it back up to the waiting aircraft. He looked back at the smoking remains of the clock face.  
"What happened to Kazé?"  
"He collapsed on the hand after knocking both of you off."  
Then they saw it; a beam of white light shot out of Kazé's heart as he lay unconscious on the clack hand. It gradually spread to encompass his whole body, and when it faded he was restored to his original form, only the black veins had spread a little further up his arm.

Kazé finally woke up once they'd got him back to Basil's house on Baker Street.  
"What... what happened?" his voice was strained.  
"Something I don't think any of us can explain." Basil had been watching him.  
Then he started to remember, the thought of what happened jamming itself into his brain like a million fiery spikes.  
"I... I lost control." He looked at his arm. "It's getting stronger."  
"What is?"  
"Something everyone is better off not knowing about; something I'm running from." He got up, and retrieved his robe from the arm of the chair where he'd left it.  
"So where are you going to run to now?"  
"I don't know; But if that happens again I want to be as far away from anyone as I can get."  
"Well, all I can say is good luck. And I hope you find a solution." Basil held out his hand.  
"Thank you. So do I." Kazé shook it, slid his robe on, and stepped out into the street, opening a portal and heading for parts unknown...

A/N: This was a long time coming, wasn't it? Blame a combination of other projects, exams and writers block over the last year(-ish) which meant I kept forgetting to work on this.

Oh, and for the record, the music for Taifu's battle is the Drammatica version of Destati. Go find it on YouTube if you haven't heard it.


	3. Chapter 3: Anger

All right, let's get this started then.

Here's the legal stuff. It's pointless and has no real weight, but it's here anyway.

All characters and locations are the properties of their respective copyright holders, be it Square, Disney or whoever else. Since no-one reads my stuff, it's unlikely that I'm gonna get sued over it, and I'd be flattered either way, but please don't.

Anyway…

Kingdom Hearts – Tabula Rasa.

Chapter Three – Anger

World – The Land of Dragons.

Kazé was sat on a rock, staring into the fire he'd lit in front of him. Maybe it was the fact he hadn't slept properly since he'd left home, but he swore he could see a face in the dancing flames. His robe, jumper and t-shirt lay discarded on the rock next to him. With the robe gone, it was possible to see just how slightly built the teen was._**  
I don't know why you keep resisting.**_  
Taifu's voice echoed in his head, and the face in the fire seemed to move in sync with it._  
You know very well why I keep resisting. Especially after what happened in the clock tower._  
Taifu laughed. It drilled into Kazé's brain and almost knocked him off the rock._**  
I'm a part of you. The sooner you accept that, the stronger you'll be.**  
You know I'm never going to do that either._  
Taifu laughed again. This time it did drive Kazé to the floor._**  
It's inevitable. Just look at your arm.**_  
Kazé looked down. The flickering light of the fire picked out the purple veins, which had now passed his elbow and begun to climb up his upper arm._**  
Slowly but surely, it's getting higher. Sure, the wizard slowed it, but nothing can stop it.**_  
Kazé stood up, dusted himself off and grabbed his t-shirt from the rock. Even with the fire burning the icy wind was still blowing in from outside, carrying some of the blizzard with it. He'd been lucky to get enough useful wood together from the charred remains of a village not far from the mouth of the cave he was hiding in before the blizzard had kicked up. He sighed, balled up his jumper, pulled his robe up as a makeshift blanket, and tried to get some sleep, with nothing to look forward to but another night of Taifu haunting his dreams. But there was still something rattling around in his head; something had broken Taifu's control out on the clock face. Maybe that was the key to solving this once and for all?

In one of the villages at the bottom of the mountain, the stories began to spread. Stories of a black-hooded figure hiding in the caves up near the snow line. A figure that occasionally prowled the ruins left behind after the Huns invaded. Eventually, a group of soldiers decided to head up and investigate the matter.

Kazé was sat in the ruins trying to work out where he should go next; it was all very well hiding in a cave, but it was only an option so long as he stayed in control. If he lost control again, there was nothing to stop Taifu heading somewhere he could do a lot of collateral damage. Like the city he'd seen on his way up the mountain.

Unfortunately, he was interrupted by the sound of several armoured figures advancing up the path._  
Soldier Heartless?**  
I doubt that somehow. If they wanted to attack you they'd just appear in front of you.**_  
Whatever the reason was, he decided to hide. Quickly.

The patrol stopped when it reached the ruins. The smell of smoke lingered on the air, even though the fires had extinguished months ago. Something was wrong, and the answer was most likely in the cave on the other side of the village.

Inside the cave, they found the remains of a fire. The wood was still warm; it had only been out for a few hours. However, when they turned to leave, their path was blocked by a large group of creatures; some floating in the air, others on the ground. All had piercing golden-yellow eyes. The soldiers spread out into a defensive line in case the creatures charged.

But nothing happened. It was almost like the creatures were waiting for them to make the first move. At least one of them was visibly quaking in fear, before he snapped, crying out and rushing straight for the line. A Shadow in the front rank simply batted him aside and he slid in to the cave wall. Then the Heartless charged back.

However, before they could get into contact, what looked like a black disk came spinning from the cave mouth. It slammed through several Heartless before vanishing, re-appearing in the hand of a small black robed figure, revealing it to be not a disc, but rather an oddly-shaped sword. The remaining Heartless turned.  
"_Surprised?"_  
One of the Soldier Heartless tried to jump him, but he swatted it away with his Keyblade, making it explode. Possibly realising that this newcomer was a bigger threat and a bigger target than three ordinary humans, the Heartless that were left began to charge._  
Come on... you can handle this easily._  
Kazé lashed out, knocking one of the Rapid Thrusters off balance and sending it crashing to the floor, before delivering a spinning kick to a Shadow behind him. The patrol, meanwhile, had taken advantage of the distraction to run like hell.

Then there was an explosion from outside.

What Kazé saw as he sprinted from the cave was a dragon of sorts circling the mountain. As soon as it spotted him it launched a ball of fire that smashed into the top of the cave mouth and exploded, causing it to collapse. The shockwave launched him a good ten feet into the air and sent him sailing into the ruins. He quickly jumped to his feet, shaking the stars from his eyes, and watched as the dragon turned away, and started heading down the side of the mountain.

Straight towards the city._  
_

_Oh, brilliant. The one place I don't want to go, and I have to go there.**  
Why so hesitant? Or do you want that thing to level the city?**_  
Kazé sighed. Things were slowly going from bad, to completely catastrophic. But he didn't have a choice, and could only hope that he could keep Taifu buried long enough to stop whatever that was, be it Heartless or natural creature of this world, and get out of the city again. He threw up his hood again, and ran at full speed down the path.

And yet, deep down he knew it was never going to be that simple.

When he reached the walls of the city, the smoke was already rising. But then he could never have hoped to beat it there. He'd had to run the full length of the mountain and the distance from there to the city; and even with the shorter distance the dragon was much, much faster than he was.

However, this wasn't the time to dwell about stuff like that. He needed a way over the walls and into the city. He was never going to jump it, and his limited magic wasn't going to make a dent in it. And yet, there was still a way up._  
There's blocks sticking out. Maybe I can climb it.**  
Clever boy. I was wondering when you'd figure that out.**_  
Kazé rolled his eyes, and took a run at the wall, then up it a few feet, grabbing onto an exposed block, and scanning for the next one._  
Good thing I'm not afraid of heights._  
The next block was a few feet to his left, as well as up a bit. He started to swing on the block he was holding, before launching himself towards it, grabbing hold of that one as well. From here, the next few were within arm's reach, and he was able to climb them like a ladder, before shimmying along the top one to line up with the next, and propelling himself upwards as it was just out of his reach, and then finally climbing onto the top of the wall.

The sight that greeted him from atop the wall was, in a word, chaos. Fires burned across the city, and the dragon kept circling above, raining more explosive fireballs down on the buildings below.  
"_I guess I need to get its attention then."_  
He drew his Keyblade, levelling it at the Dragon.  
"_Thunder."_ He whispered, sending a bolt of lightning crashing into it from above. It turned, and he could see raw emotion burning in its Heartless gold eyes. It was angry, make no mistake about that. A point proven when it launched several fireballs at the wall the teen was stood on. He leaped off, barely making it away before the masonry beneath his feet exploded in a hail of stone shrapnel.

_**Well, you wanted it angry. It's angry.**  
No, I wanted its attention. Angry is an unlucky bonus._  
The Dragon soared overhead, before diving straight for him._  
That's it... come on big guy..._  
Barely a second before it crushed him into the flagstones, Kazé jumped; it carried him up and over the Dragon Heartless, before depositing him on its back. Immediately, it tried to buck him off like a raging bull. At this point, there wasn't much he could do but drive his Keyblade into its back and hang on for dear life. However, just the act of doing this made the bucking worse, since now there was real pain as well as rage driving it.

"_Oh, didn't you like that?"_ He wondered aloud, as he summoned an ice crystal around his free fist, and plunged it into the Dragon's side. The buck, when it came, propelled him along the length of the giant Heartless, where he alighted on the back of its head, at the top of the crest that adorned just about every single one of them.  
"_Time to finish this."_ He muttered, before driving his Keyblade into the crest with both hands. There was a mouthless scream, before the Heartless began to descend rapidly. Too rapidly. Kazé launched himself off the back of the head at the last possible moment, before the Dragon exploded in that characteristic cloud of ink-blue smoke, with a heart shaped crystal rising from within it before vanishing. Sora once told him that those crystals were the hearts that had been stolen to make the Heartless; hearts consumed and trapped by darkness, released by the Keyblade.

When the first onlookers arrived, they found no trace of the creature that had rained terror down upon them. A few talked later of seeing a brown-haired boy in a strange black robe, but that he quickly vanished, never to be seen again. Others wondered if he'd ever been real at all, and if the whole thing wasn't simply some fanciful tale to cover up powder stores and fireworks exploding.


End file.
